Following the launch of the Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics card, MSI decided to launch a couple of SKUs including two versions cooled by famous Twin Frozr III cooler that will be a part of the new Gaming Series lineup.

Two standard GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards from MSI will be recognizable by a cooler that has a 100mm center placed fan and will be sold under N650Ti-2GD5 BE and N650Ti-2GD5/OC BE model names. The reference clocked one works at 980MHz (1033MHz boost) GPU clock and feature 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked 6008MHz and it is paired up with a 192-bit memory interface. The OC version works at 1006MHz base and 1072MHz boost clock while the rest of the specs remains the same.

Earlier this month at Cebit, MSI announced the arrival of its new Gaming Series branded products that will include both graphics cards and motherboards. MSI decided that the GTX 650 Ti Boost is good enough to be a part of this series and has launched two models, both cooled by MSI's Twin Frozr III cooler. The N650Ti TF 2GD5 BE and the N650Ti TF 2GD5/OC BE both feature same cooler. The first one is reference clocked while the OC version works at 1033MHz base and 1098MHz boost clocks.

All new MSI GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics cards should be available pretty soon.

Nvidia has officially launched its newest mid-range graphics card in order to counter the recently launched AMD Radeon HD 7790.

The GTX 650 Ti Boost is based on the same GK106 Kepler GPU as the GTX 650 Ti and the GTX 660, the new card features 768 CUDA cores, 64 texture units 24 ROPs, works at 980MHz base and 1033MHz boost clock and will be available with either 1 or 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired up wtih a 192-bit memory interface.

By launching two versions with 1GB or 2GB of memory, Nvidia manages to battle both the HD 7790 1GB graphics card in the US $149 range as well as the Radeon HD 7850 2GB in the US $169 price range. Few days earlier, or to be precise on Friday, when we wrote about the GTX 650 Ti Boost, Nvidia planed, or at least told its partners, that the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB will go after the HD 7850 and thus should be priced accordingly at around US $189, but a few days later, Nvidia decided to drop the price down to US $169 in order to better cope with AMD's offering. These prices make the GTX 650 Ti Boost 1/2GB quite a decent match for AMD's offerings on both fronts, but we'll get to details a bit later.

Performance and specification wise, the GTX 650 Ti Boost has a lot more to do with the GTX 660 rather than the GTX 650 Ti. The GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB on average, depending on the game and the benchmark, certainly breathes down the HD 7850 2GB neck and is even slightly faster in some if not most scenarios. Unfortunately, Nvidia did a clever thing and most if not all sites are doing the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB review and compare it to the HD 7790 which honestly does not sound fair as we are not talking about the same price range.

Judging by the slides that we saw earlier, Nvidia certainly wanted to go after the HD 7850 and the HD 7790 now simply sounds like collateral damage. Unfortunately, prices go up and down and we are sure that AMD has at least some room to adjust their pricing and offer great value with those bundled games.

Currently, as far as we can see, the HD 7850 2GB sells for around US $180 with various rebates at Newegg.com which makes it about US $10 more expensive than the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB. The HD 7790 1GB should be selling for US $149.99 which is pretty much what Nvidia wants for the GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB graphics card.

In Europe, the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB should go for €149 for the 1GB and €169 for the 2GB version. A quick check of our favorite EU price search engine reveals that you can actually buy the HD 7850 2GB graphics card for about the same amount of money and, of course, the HD 7790 1GB also is pretty much in line with the GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB €149.

We have yet to see a GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB review but judging from these first GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB reviews, AMD's HD 7790 will certainly be in trouble and we are quite sure that they will justify it with the Never Settle Reloaded bundle that adds Bioshock Infinite game coupon. Same thing can be applied to the HD 7850 and the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB, as although it does come on top, performance wise (in some if not all situations), AMD can easily say that their card has more value thanks to the bundle, which in this case adds both the Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider games.

We happened to catch a glimpse at a set of Nvidia made slides that puts its upcoming GTX 650 Ti Boost against AMD's Radeon HD 7850. According to the slides results, it appears that GTX 650 Ti Boost will win in most scenarios.

In case you missed earlier leaks and rumors, the GTX 650 Ti Boost features 768 CUDA cores and works at 980MHz base and 1033MHz Boost clock for the GPU. It will be equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired up with a 192-bit memory interface. It needs a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector and that a TDP of 140W.

According to Nvidia slides, the GTX 650 Ti Boost is up to 20 percent faster (or 12 percent on average) at 1080p resolution in all Nvidia picked games, including Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, Crysis 3, COD: Black OPS II, Assassin's Creed 3, Skyrim and others. Furthermore, Nvidia claims that GTX 650 Ti Boost should be even better in higher resolution since it is outfitted with a 2GB frame buffer while many competing Radeon HD 7850 cards at its price point come with 1GB of memory.

Although we are still not sure about the precise price of the GTX 650 Ti Boost, some of our sources are suggesting that it should be priced at around US $200. With that in mind, we are not quite sure which stores Nvidia takes into account but a quick check at Newegg.com reveals that you can actually buy the HD 7850 2GB for as little as US $179.99 with a limited rebate from XFX, or for US $184.99 without it. Of course, bear in mind that the HD 7850 also comes with free Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider game coupons which definitely adds a bit more value.

In any case we will know for sure on 26th of March, as that is the current NDA date for the GTX 650 Ti Boost.

Once the GTX 660 and GTX 650 were out, a glance at the performance gap suggested there is a good chance Nvidia will fill it with another card. Today, Nvidia launched its new – GTX 650 Ti, so the company’s offer now lists (top to bottom):

The GTX 650 Ti is based on Nvidia’s Kepler GK106 GPU, first seen on the recently launched GTX 660. In its full version, the GK106 GPU packs five SMX units with 960 CUDA cores, 24 ROPs and 80 texture units. In case of the GTX 650 Ti, four SMXs are used, offering a total of 768 CUDA cores and 64 texture units.

Unfortunately, the memory took a hit as well and the GTX 650 Ti has a mere 128-bit memory interface, unlike the GTX 660’s 192-bit. Note that the design allows for both 1GB and 2GB versions of the card.

The GTX 650 Ti’s playing field should be 1080p (1920x1080). Our today’s guest is one of the faster GTX 650 Ti samples that comes with 2GB of memory as well – EVGA’s GTX 650 Ti SSC 2GB.

Reference GPUs tick at 925MHz. The GTX 660’s reference GPU clock was at 980MHz when it launched, but many partners overclocked it beyond 1GHz. We expected the same this time around and EVGA did not disappoint.

Although the GK 106 GPU originally supports GPU Boost, the cut down version on the GTX 650 Ti doesn’t have it. This is proof enough that the card comes from GTX 650, rather than GTX 660 series. This also means the card always runs at its highest possible clock, which is 1072MHz in SuperSuperclocked's world.

· Most EVGA products now carry a 3 Year Warranty, which can be extended to 5 or 10 years (upon registration, and a small fee starting from approx €8 dependent upon the price of the product)

· The product warranty covers the product, not the user. (So in short, this means an end user could sell the product on an online auction site, for example, and the product will still be covered within the 3 Year Warranty period.)

· Registration is no longer required for RMAs with our Guest RMA process.

· The Step-Up Program and Extended Warranties will be available for all original owners registered with the new global RMA system within 30 days of the purchase.

· If you move, you can send your product back to your local warranty centre no matter what region you purchased it in.

· A new Standard Cross-Shipping RMA service is available.

Assassin's Creed III

EVGA’s GTX 650 Ti 1GB variants (for retail/etail/SI) are bundled (via a code) with the full PC version of Assassin's Creed III.

We like the packaging EVGA started using for the GTX 660/650 series, as it’s smaller than what the company uses for faster cards, but still tough enough. Nvidia made a rule that every package should have the card’s name on the side of the box, which should help customers and retailers find the right card easier.

EVGA included a molex-to-6-pin converter, DVI-to-VGA dongle, driver CD, EVGA badge, user guide and a few papers with advice for setting it up.

The GTX 650 Ti SSC is the shortest Kepler based card so far. It couldn’t have been made shorter because of the PCI Express connector length.

The PCB is only 14.5cm long, which is about the length of the cooler shroud.

The picture below shows the GTX 660, which also uses the GK106 GPU. Its PCB is 17.3cm long while the cooler measures 24.3cm together with the shroud. The GTX 650 has a TDP of 110W, which is 30W less than the GTX 660. Nvidia allows smaller coolers, i.e. GTX 650 designs, and EVGA took them up on this offer.

EVGA GTX 650 Ti SSC looks pretty much identical to the GTX 650 SC, or any other EVGA GTX 650 for that matter.

The card has dual slot cooling that relies on a single down-draft 80mm fan. The shroud isn’t completely closed up but at least has no exhausts between the fan and I/O panel, so at least some hot air will exit the case.

The GTX 650 Ti draws power via one 6-pin connector, just like the GTX 650, although the latter’s TDP is mere 64W.

The fan is part of the shroud. Taking off the shroud reveals a circular heatsink.

Two phases are left for the GPU while another one, towards the top of the PCB, was left for the memory.

The heatsink is one slot wide, but the fan takes up another.

GTX 650 Ti supports triple displays straight out of the box. This is why the I/O panel has two dual link DVIs and a mini-HDMI out. EVGA threw in a DVI-to-VGA dongle as well.

EVGA changed the texture work on the shroud and since it’s now smooth and without holes, it will not gather dust as much. While the likes of EVGA’s GTX 680 Signature 2 are visually more appealing, they’re quick to collect dust and harder to clean.

Playing at 1920x1080 was pleasant enough, but the card loses pace once the filters are on. The difference between EVGA GTX 650 Ti and GTX 660 is more evident when antialiasing is in the game. In fact, turning on antialiasing clearly separates GTX 650 (Ti) from GTX 660 (Ti) and it’s clear this isn’t a card built to handle antialiasing at 1920x1080.

Unigine Heaven

We used PrecisionX tool, which of course supports the GTX 650 Ti. To mark the launch, EVGA even made the new skin, picture below.

Despite the already high factory overclock (147MHz over reference 925MHz) 650 Ti SSC can be overclocked even further. Additional 50MHz may not sound that impressive, but giving the memory a 150MHz boost gave a 7 percent performance bump. Although memory specs say 1500MHz, EVGA decided to stick with the reference 1350MHz.

Fan speed can be controlled but all the tools we ended up using read the RPM in percentages only. The fan didn’t exceed 23 percent RPM during gaming. Once we pushed it to 40 percent, we could hear it well and 100% ended up being very loud. Note however that there will be no need to mess with fan speed, because AUTO mode runs just fine and delivers a good cooling-to-noise ratio.

GPU went up to 66°C, which is solid enough and the card is inaudible quiet when idle. The only thing that bothered us a bit was the operating noise from somewhere inside the PCB – it wasn’t too loud but we could faintly hear it from inside the case.

As you can see from the graph below, overclocking didn't result in more noise. The fan remained quiet but the GPU temperature did climb to 72°C.

Power consumption is already good, and even better considering the high factory overclock on the EVGA GTX 650 Ti SSC 2GB.

In general, EVGA GTX 650 Ti SSC is a good graphics card that runs well, consumes little, stays quiet and doesn’t get very hot. In turn, simple cooling was sufficient to keep the card cool. Consumption-performance ratio is exceptionally good. The only thing we did not like was the operating noise in question which resembles a faint squeal of sorts, a high pitched tone.

The card is sufficient for 1080p gaming, unless you’re absolutely bent on maxing out all the settings. Once you put the GTX 650 Ti’s price and its 1920x1080 performance in perspective, you’ll see that it ranks slightly lower than the competing Radeon HD 7850.

EVGA offers the GTX 650 Ti in 2GB and 1GB flavors, where the former costs some €10 more. If you’re a fan of Assassin’s Creed 3, then you should know that EVGA bundles this game in certain regions with their GTX 650 Ti 1GB card.

The GTX 650 doesn’t support SLI, but offers three video outs that can be used simultaneously. When compared to the competition, EVGA GTX 650 Ti SSC 2GB would come really close to the HD 7850, but not close enough to take it down.

In the end, let’s talk cash – the GTX 650 Ti SSC 2GB goes for about €165, while the same card with 1GB of memory costs about €155. Radeon HD 7850 2GB goes for €175 while 1GB version costs €150. It’s pretty clear that the GTX 650 Ti has potential and a price adjustment may just turn out to be decisive in this matchup. Other than that, EVGA’s GTX 650 Ti SSC 2GB is a quality card that we’d gladly recommend to anyone, but mostly occasional gamers who like 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 and don’t fret over detail settings.

Ahead of launch, scheduled for today, Gigabyte's overclocked version of the new GTX 650 Ti graphics card has already popped up for pre-order.

As it is the case with Gigabyte's 2GB version of the GTX 650 Ti graphics card, the GTX 650 Ti 1GB OC, or GV-N65TOC-1GI, will also use Gigabyte's recognizable Windforce cooler and feature the Ultra Durable 2 design with Ferrite Core Chokes, Low RDS MOSFET and all-solid capacitors.

According to early details, the GPU ends up overclocked to 1032MHz which goes in line with what we heard earlier about decent overclocking capabilities of the GTX 650 Ti. Unfortunately, Gigabyte apparently decided to keep the memory at reference 5400MHz. It will also feature an HDMI, D-Sub and two DVI ports.

As noted earlier, the new GV-N65TOC-1GI showed up for pre-order with a price tag set at €145,32. (viaTechpowerup.com)

We have been told that the GTX 650 Ti is quite an overclocker and at least some, if not all, partners will release a factory overclocked graphics card based on this GPU.

According to our sources, the new GTX 650 Ti graphics card will easily go well over 1000MHz for the GPU. The new GTX 650 Ti might lack the GPU Boost feature but at least it will be able to get a decent factory overclock.

As we wrote earlier, the GTX 650 Ti is based on the 28nm GK106 GPU and features 768 CUDA cores. It will be available in both 1 and 2GB versions but the precise price still remains a mystery. According to early reviews, it ends up a bit slower than the HD 7850, at least on its reference 928MHz GPU clock.

The factory overclocked cards might tip the scales into GTX 650 Ti favor, but these cards also end up more expensive, so we will leave the final judgement when we see some official reviews tomorrow. For now, it looks like Nvidia will have a hard time to sell this graphics card, especially with AMD's recently promised price cuts.

It appears that Nvidia gave its partners a lot of design leeway to its partners when it comes to GTX 650 Ti graphics card and it looks like that it will not be limited to 1GB of VRAM, and some partners will do a 2GB version from day one.

Early listings at our price search engine shows the Gigabyte GV-N65TOC-2GI graphics card and currently this is the only one we have seen so far. This, of course, does not mean that we will not see similar 2GB versions from other partners as well.

According to this early listing, the 2GB version is about 20€ more expensive but as we said, these are early listings and price could change as we draw closer to the launch day.

Of course, it is left to be seen if the GTX 650 Ti will be actually limited by 1GB of memory or will it be able to benefit from additional 1GB of video memory.

A quick glance at our favorite price search engine revealed a handful of GTX 650 Ti graphics cards already listed in Europe with the lowest price set at €139,56.

The cheapest one comes from Gigabyte and it is an OC version. Most of these GTX 650 Ti graphics cards are currently listed only in Austria and as we wrote earlier, the final price is not carved in stone and it is something that Nvidia and retailers/e-tailers can change quite easily. Early listings of retailers/e-tailers that are trying to score some pre-orders usually charge a slight premium, so the final price might be a bit cheaper.

Point of View has three GTX 650 Ti cardds listed and it looks like they will try to squeeze out the last ounce of performance from this mainstream board.

Currently in Europe, the cheapest Radeon HD 7850 comes from Sapphire and is priced at €148,80, just a tad higher than the GTX 650 Ti.

Although they look a bit strange, we now have some of the early benchmark results of the GTX 650 Ti.

According to 3DMark 11 results posted over at WCCFTech.com, the GTX 650 Ti scores X1489 in 3DMark "xtreme" preset and P4689 in "performance" preset. These results put the GTX 650 Ti ahead of the HD 6870 but slower than the HD 7850. Of course, 3DMark 11 is far from the actual, real-world, performance, so we will wait for some game benchmarks before we make a final verdict about the upcoming GTX 650 Ti.

In addition to the early benchmark figures, the leak includes a full GPU-Z screenshot of the card confirming the 768 CUDA cores, 128-bit memory interface and the 928MHz reference GPU clock that we wrote about yesterday.

The only thing that does look strange on the screenshot is the actual memory clock which should be set at 5400MHz rather than the 6008MHz, but as we said, we will see at least a couple of factory overclocked graphics cards based on this GPU and it simply could be the choice of some partner to go with faster clocked memory.

As we wrote yesterday, Nvidia still did not give the final price of the GTX 650 Ti to its partners and the recent HD 7850 price cut will certainly put a lot of pressure on this card. The new GTX 650 Ti is currently scheduled to officially launch on 9th of October.

Some of AMD's Radeon graphics cards, or to be precise, the Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7770 have recently received yet another price cut.

This price cut can be considered AMD's response to recent introduction of Nvidia graphics cards in the sub-$200 price range. The AMD Radeon HD 7850 1GB has been dropped down to US $159 (after rebate) while the 2GB version will be selling for US $189.

In addition to the Radeon HD 7850, the Radeon HD 7770 also got the new US $119 suggested retail price which will make the market positioning of the upcoming GTX 650 Ti much more difficult.

According to a post over at the XBitlabs.com, the new price cuts do not come directly from AMD but rather partners themselves. Although AMD did issue a statement that this price cut is aimed at holiday gaming season and value/performance market, it is quite clear that they simply want to make the life of Nvidia partners just a tad bit harder.